Women’s Boxing: The Weekly Wrap Up

The headlining female bout of the week took place in Frederikshavn, Denmark Saturday night. Undefeated welterweight champion, Cecilia Braekhus (22-0, 6 KO’s) put all three of her world welterweight titles, WBA, WBO, and WBC on the line against veteran and former WBC light middleweight titlist, Mia St. John (47-13-2, 18 KO’s). The bout was the lone world title fight on Sauerland Promotion’s Nordic Fight Night.

Cecilia Braekhus

Despite having nearly three times the fight experience of Braekhus, St. John was out classed from the start. Over the course of three rounds, the world champion kept the pressure on her 45 year old challenger, keeping her back to the ropes using a stiff jab to control the pace of the bout and putting in a solid body attack when she cornered St. John.

Braekhus became more aggressive with each round, and St. John just didn’t have the speed or power to keep her away. With 30 seconds left in the third round, the referee had felt St. John had taken enough punishment and weaved off the bout, awarding Braekhus her 22nd straight win, and her 11th successful title defense.

Braekhus, who is considered among the top pound for pound female fighters world wide, is still targeting light welterweight world champion Holly Holm, who she openly challenged via video months ago. Holm, who hasn’t fought since December, is scheduled to fight Mary McGee in May.

For St. John, this marks what very well could be her last major outing. She’s been fighting professionally since 1997, and over the course of her 15 year career, she has held the WBC world title, numerous regional titles, and had taken part in three other world title bouts, this past Saturday’s included. She’s had a spotty record since 2005, where she began to lose just as many bouts as she was winning, but over the course of her career, she’s been in the ring with much top opposition such as Holly Holm, Jessica Rakoczy, Rola El Halabi, and Christy Martin.

Two other world title bouts took place in Argentina this past weekend. Friday night in Santa Fe, Daniela Bermudez (13-2-2, 3, KO’s) made her fourth defense of the interim WBA super flyweight title. Meeting the 4-3 (3 KO’s) challenger, Guadalupe Martinez, Bermudez worked her way to one sided shut out decision, winning by scores of 100-91.5, 100-91, and 100-90.5. Bermudez is now riding an eight fight win streak; her last defeat was a challenge for the WBA light flyweight title in which she lost a 10 round decision to Yesica Bopp. The loss for Martinez snaps a three fight knockout win streak. After starting her career with a 1-2 tally, she turned things around with a win in December, and two more in early 2013.

Saturday night in Entre Rios, newly crowned IBF super flyweight champion Debora Dionicius (12-0, 4 KO’s) defended the title against Gabriela Bouvier (9-4-1, 2 KO’s). Dionicius won the vacant title in her last bout, winning a 10 round decision over Michelle Preston in November. Dionicius made easy work of Bouvier, taking a unanimous decision by scores of 100-90 twice and 99-91. After fighting seven times in 2011 and three times in 2012, this was Dionicius’s first bout of 2013. For Bouvier, this was her third failing try at a world title. She was stopped twice by Mariana Juarez in bids for the WBC flyweight title and was also stopped in a bid for the WBC Silver super flyweight title by Zulina Munoz. She won a six round decision over Ely Munoz in December prior to taking this fight.

In Delaware, U.S., undefeated Ronica Jeffrey (12-0, 1 KO) racked up another win and picked up a title defeating Natasha Spence (6-2-1, 5 KO’s) by eight round decision. The win earned Jeffrey the interim WIBA super featherweight title. Jeffrey also holds the WBC silver super featherweight title and is a former NABF champion in the same division.

Myriam Dellal (8-4-2, 2 KO’s) won the vacant France light welterweight title with a fourth round knockout of Johanne Cavarec (1-1) in France.

In other action:
Nadja Ropac (1-0) defeated Laura Deanovic (1-4) over four rounds in California, in Argentina Vanesa Tobroda (2-0) won in four rounds over Veronica Tesure (0-1-1) and Carina Britos (11-14, 7 KO’s) stopped Viviana Giminez (1-2) in the first round. Nicole Wesner (3-0, 1 KO) defeated Zsofia Bedo (6-28-1, 1 KO) in four rounds in Austria, in Colombia Yarley Cuadrado (1-0, 1 KO) scored a first round knockout of Carmen Regino (0-3), in Mexico, Naroyuki Koasicha (0-0-1) drew in four rounds with Nancy Vazquez (0-0-1) and Monserrat Alarcon (2-0-1) drew in four rounds with Nayala Verdi (0-1-1). Also in Mexico Alondra Garcia (7-0, 1 KO) won a four round decision over Jazmin Ortega (0-1). Dalia Vasarhelyi (4-2) won in four rounds over Gabriella Vicze (3-22, 1 KO). In other U.S. bouts, Nydia Feliciano (6-4-3) took a four round decision over Elizabeth Sherman (4-3, 2 KO’s) on a New Jersey card, in Oklahoma, Sheena Chaney (1-3-1, 1 KO) scored her first KO stopping Sara Maloy (0-1-1) in the second round in a rematch and Racquel Bailey (2-3-1) won in four rounds over Rachel Vidal (0-1-0).

“Like” us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for exclusives and other bonus material from Boxing’s Independent Media.